Create a Culture of Locally Supported Innovation and Small Business Success in Your Community
Let Reinventing Rural help you bring the magic of CO.STARTERS to your rural town
Creating thriving business communities
Partner with Reinventing Rural and CO.STARTERS to jumpstart your business goals
Proven programs to create lasting entrepreneur communities
With the help of community supporters, we believe your community can be transformed. It's happening in Burns, Fossil, Lincoln City, Reedsport, Veneta, and other rural places in Oregon where CO.STARTERS is taking root.
Helping sponsor CO.STARTERS in your area not only supports new business, but it connects you to a growing entrepreneurial movement with a proven economic impact on the local, national, and global levels.
Learn how your involvement will help shape the future of business in your area. Engage your organization with entrepreneurs, business owners, creatives, investors, and community-loving people who are making an impact in your community and beyond!
Reinventing Rural helps you bring the magic of CO.STARTERS to your rural community so that you can build a locally-driven vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. We ensure you develop pipelines of support for your starters at every stage of their journey.
CO.STARTERS WILL ENERGIZE YOUR MAIN STREET
CO.STARTERS didn't come out of some big city or University where terms like "Angel Investor," "Venture Capital," and "Unicorn" are used. CO.STARTERS grew from a recognized need in Chattanooga, Tennessee where artists, creators, makers, and others needed better support to start and grow businesses that benefit Main Street and not Wall Street. CO.STARTERS blends extensive knowledge from years of non-traditional business support with the most effective high-growth startup methods used today to support starters who create jobs in your communities.
What we do
Turn passion into thriving business
Reinventing Rural + CO.STARTERS supports your work at the intersection of economic and community development to help individuals and communities thrive through entrepreneurship.
What began as a transformation story on local Main Street has grown from a program, to a company, to a global community and network with a growing list of offerings.
Reinventing Rural helps bring CO.STARTERS to your rural community. We support you, as you grow and build your own, locally driven culture of innovation.
Beginning in 2008 in Chattanooga, Tennessee as part of a five-year Main Street revitalization effort, we recognized a growing need to provide business support to artists, creatives, and others who didn’t fit traditional models. In response, we adapted existing business planning resources to serve groups of people interested in launching or refining creative businesses.
We set out to create something intentionally and completely new— something with a new mindset not focused on scarcity or exclusion, but on need and value. While providing this kind of business support was incredibly valuable, the connection and community resulting from the program were often the most beneficial aspects.
Over the first four years in Chattanooga, more than 1,000 people went through the program. The local work grew to support not only small businesses, but also high-growth startups.
Through our early work with creative entrepreneurs we found that business support combined with community building led to significant transformation and unlocked potential. We wondered, how could we make this happen everywhere?
CO.STARTERS launched nationally in 2013, packaging the best of our learnings from years of small business support and melding it with the most effective high-growth startup methods—all grounded in a community context.
Today the CO.STARTERS network consists of communities all over the country and spreading around the world, with thousands participating in its programs annually.
co.starters bootcamp
2-Day Intensive Workshop
CO.STARTERS Bootcamp is a 4-part series delivered over 2 full days designed to help you learn a proven framework to refine your business idea.
Over the 2 days you will identify how to better understand your business idea and how to refine it using customer feedback.
You'll cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset in a safe and supportive environment. You'll gain tools to market your business and gain customer awareness. Learn about business legal structures and the basics of financial modeling and build momentum.
co.starters
core program
co.starters
core program
Start building your thriving business
CO.STARTERS Core is a three-month, cohort-based program that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships, and tools needed to turn ideas into action and turn a passion into a sustainable and thriving endeavor.
co.starters generator
Modular Youth Program
Building on the proven CO.STARTERS model, CO.STARTERS Generator is a modular program that helps teens explore their passions through generating, testing, and launching ideas.
With the ability to choose which modules are best suited to your timeframe and context, CO.STARTERS Generator is a great way to inspire youth with the vision, enthusiasm, and tenacity needed to move from idea to action.
CO.STARTERS Impacts
During the 2020 global pandemic, CO.STARTERS helped entrepreneurs start new projects or pivot their existing businesses to thrive with changing circumstances
CO.STARTERS equips individuals and communities to thrive through entrepreneurship.
Transformation by focusing on real community needs - jobs, revitalization, and growth opportunities for local talent.
Reinventing Rural is an online community focused on helping rural communities in the Pacific Northwest embrace their rugged culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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